National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! DISNEYLAND SECTION COMPLETED - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! DISNEYLAND SECTION COMPLETED
I’m posting this introduction into three different forums, as our trip will take in distinct different elements. Those forums are:
Globetrotting trip reports
Disneyland trip reports
Disney Cruise trip reports
Rather than putting the pre-trip report into all three, I’m going to put it into the Globetrotting one and you can follow the link through to it to find it.
When it gets to the actual report, any live updates we’re able to do while we’re away will go into the relevant forum, as will the full report when we return.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
We are now at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, staying in a one bedroom villa in the Villas - and I have to say, it is amazing. The styling and the size of it is just perfect.
It took us some time to make it here though from LAX. We got in about 9:50pm and our plane landed three hours earlier. It took 45 minutes to get through immigration, which wasn't great and then another half hour for the Disneyland Resort Express to get to us. Let's just say that we won't be flying into LAX again if we can avoid it....
Glad you made it! I hope Steve and Sue are going to be able to fly out as planned. It's a good thing this long trip of yours is on the West coast. The East isn't too travel-friendly at the moment!
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Yeah, LAX is a pain. I remember back in 2005, we got to the airport more than 3 hours before our flight departure time and BARELY made it to our gate before they stopped boarding because security and stuff took FOREVER
Rough start, but I'm glad you're there. Hope you have a great day today!
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Glad you made it! I hope Steve and Sue are going to be able to fly out as planned. It's a good thing this long trip of yours is on the West coast. The East isn't too travel-friendly at the moment!
I know! I just heard from Sue and Steve and they're flying out Monday now to be on the safe side....
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Yeah, LAX is a pain. I remember back in 2005, we got to the airport more than 3 hours before our flight departure time and BARELY made it to our gate before they stopped boarding because security and stuff took FOREVER
Oh boy... thanks for the warning. Maybe we'll need to be on the Disneyland Resort Express earlier than I'd figured...
Wow--that's a long wait! Hope you were able to get some rest last night though.
Sadly not the greatest : and we're up early. Sigh. Hopefully we can make it through today OK and then get on track with a decent night's sleep tonight.
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It took 45 minutes to get through immigration, which wasn't great and then another half hour for the Disneyland Resort Express to get to us. Let's just say that we won't be flying into LAX again if we can avoid it....
for smooth sailing the rest of the way.
I just heard from Sue and Steve and they're flying out Monday now to be on the safe side....
: and we're up early. Sigh. Hopefully we can make it through today OK and then get on track with a decent night's sleep tonight.
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